


Pearl

by SpaceKase



Series: Femslash February 2021 [3]
Category: Sam & Max (Video Games)
Genre: F/F, Getting Together, Getting to Know Each Other, Girl Stinky is Sybil's rebound girl, Rebound relationships, that's it; that's the fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-04
Updated: 2021-02-04
Packaged: 2021-03-15 12:21:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,087
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29189223
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpaceKase/pseuds/SpaceKase
Summary: In between Sybil and Abe's break-up, there was one other person...
Relationships: Sybil Pandemik/Girl Stinky
Series: Femslash February 2021 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2139186
Comments: 2
Kudos: 1





	Pearl

**Author's Note:**

> "Any advice on what to do about Sybil?"
> 
> "Drop that Lincoln guy like a bad habit." 
> 
> ...That's it. That's...that's the only justification for this fic.

"And he'd just break into a random speech! Can you believe it? Could he _be_ anymore pretentious? Have you ever heard of someone so _annoying_?"

Stinky turned to the bubbling coffee pot to hide her snide expression. "You have _no_ idea," she retorted.

Sybil Pandemik in her diner, complaining loudly about her ex boyfriend, was annoying. But to her credit, nowhere _near_ as annoying as the giant stone head of the Lincoln memorial. At least Sybil wasn't crying or moaning or trying to tip her with Confederate money.

"He wanted me to get plastic surgery to look like a Moai head. _Me!_ I mean..." It was here that the other woman's indignant look gave way to a more vulnerable one. "What's wrong with my face?"

Stinky sighed. Kindness and empathy had never been her strong suit. Neither had honesty. But she understood where Sybil was coming from; she and Sal had taken a break recently. Probably for the best; Stinky could at least admit to herself that the cockroach was far too good for her.

"Nothing is wrong with your face, Hon. You're very pretty." She realized she didn't sound honest; it really hadn't been intentional, but the snarky, passive aggressive tone she'd adopted decades ago had become her default.

Sybil's face fell. "Just 'pretty?'" she asked.

"Not _just_ pretty, Dear; pretty in a down-to-Earth, Girl-Next-Door sort of way. That's a special sort of beauty." Stinky had been considered the most beautiful mermaid in her family's part of the ocean. It wasn't a boast; it was simply the truth. Not that that meant much; her ex from a little over a century ago had once compared her to an iceberg. Beautiful to look at, but icy to the touch. The sort of beauty that Sybil had was something different; her prettiness helped to accentuate a character that was, Stinky had to admit, delightful.

Her words had put a smile on the other woman's lips. It was the first time she'd seen her smile in days. "Well...thank you."

Stinky refilled Sybil's coffee cup, careful not to let the greenish-brown sludge spill over the white porcelain edge. "Forget him, Sybil; you're a thousand times too good for him."

Sybil sighed. "I'm trying to; believe me. But we _did_ have some good times together...I'd just hoped I wouldn't be here, thirty-six, jobless, and single."

Stinky couldn't help herself. She scoffed. "Please. _I'm_ one hundred forty- _two_ and single. I've got a job here, but 'waitress slash diner owner' is hardly the dream." All she'd really wanted was to buy back the building she and her first serious boyfriend had performed Vaudeville routines in. Waitressing wasn't terrible, she supposed, but this place had definitely seen better days. Assigning stories to each of the various knickknacks she'd put up helped her feel a little closer to the old days, when she could dedicate herself fully to a character that was anyone but her.

Sybil perked up a little. "Oh, right! Merfolk tend to live much longer than humans, right?"

Stinky nearly dropped the coffee pot. "You...know I'm a mermaid?" And here she'd thought the legs she'd sold her soul for were so convincing!

"I had an inkling. I was a marine biologist for a while; learning the customs and cultures of merfolk was a part of the course." That was either the twenty-seventh or twenty-eighth job Sybil had mentioned having in the past. Stinky had lost track. "It's been a while, so I might be rusty, but I think I can still recognize one if I'm close enough."

"Huh." Someone learning something about her--something _true_ , at that--had shaken Stinky more than she was comfortable with. "Color me impressed!"

"You must have lived a fairly full life; you must have had breakups before. What do you do? How do you distract yourself?"

"Usually? Find a rebound person." A blatant lie. Probably not the most blatant she'd told in recent years, but still pretty blatant. There was a distinct Sal-shaped hole in the stone encased in ice where her heart probably should have been.

"Like you?"

It took Stinky, usually sharp as a whip, as Grandpa Stinky liked to say on rare occasions he was being generous, a ridiculously long time to catch onto what Sybil was saying. "Are you serious? Isn't a washed-up mermaid waitress a bit...low for your standards?" Abe might have been annoying and lecherous, but she could certainly see the clout that could come with dating him.

Sybil shook her head. "Not at all! I don't care about that sort of thing. Besides, I like to try a bit of everything; I've never had a lesbian experimentation phase, not even back in college. You're pretty and you seem interesting."

Maybe it was the pain of the recent break. Maybe the fumes from the coffee were getting to her. Maybe she'd just had enough of complaining. Whatever it was, she let herself smile genuinely. "Oh, why not? I've got nothing better to do." Sybil was literally the only one in the diner at the moment. It would be no huge loss turning the 'open' sign to 'closed.'

"One thing first, though..." Sybil pouted thoughtfully. "Is 'Stinky' your real name? It might be awkward, introducing you to people as 'my girlfriend Stinky.'"

Stinky couldn't help herself. She laughed. "Of course not! It's..." She nearly let slip where the name had come from; that all the time and effort she'd gone to to make Grandpa Stinky think his Cake of the Damned recipe had worked, only to call her Stinky Jr., had nearly made her second-guess whether the plan to gain back the diner was truly worth any of it. "It's...a nickname. Grandpa Stinky was...just like that. You know?"

If Sybil could tell she was lying, she didn't comment on it. "I came here a few times when he was still around. I can believe that." She didn't ask how a mermaid could be related to a human man or how someone who was nearly a century and a half old could be the granddaughter of someone who was only half that age. Perhaps Sybil assumed Stinky was adopted. 

"Before that, though...my mother called me Pearl." A lovely namesake; her mother, blue-blooded on her father's side of the family, had been fond of pearls. The necklace draped around Stinky's neck was one of only a few things she'd taken with her onto land.

Sybil slid her slender hand into Stinky's. "All right then...Pearl." 


End file.
